Comparison

Photographic Effects vs Brushstroke

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Photographic Effects

This app allows you to apply unique artistic effects to your photos. Choose from bass relief, contour, pseudo colors, or deformation to transform your images. Save your creations or take new photos to process.

Highlights
  • Apply Bass Relief effect
  • Create Contour drawings
  • Generate Pseudo Color images
  • Deform images with barrel distortion
  • Select images from archive or camera
  • Save processed images
Features
Read full description

Effects is a Digital Image Processor (DIP) for iPad. It allows to select an image from the archive, or to shot a new photo with the internal camera, then process it using one of four different image processing algorythms. The four processing effects are: 1) Bass Relief: creates a new gray scale image with an Embossing effect. It is suitable for any kind of image, provided it has a good contrast. 2) Contour: creates a drawing obtained detecting the border lines between areas with different brightness. Best results are obtained with images with a strong contrast. 3) Pseudo Colors: creates a new colored image, converting different brightness levels of the original picture into different color hues. It can produce many different color combinations on the same image, giving a kind of Kandinskij effect. 4) Deformer: introduces a barrel distortion, compressing some portions of the original image, and inflating other ones. This effect is specially suitable for close-up portraits, and creates very funny variations. When the application starts, you are prompted to choose the image source: archive or camera shot. Once you ha picked an image, you are prompted to choose one of four processing methods. Touch one of the four sampling images to select the type of effect you prefer. When selection is done, the desired effect will be applied to the picked image, and the result shown. If the selected effect is Pseudo Colors, you can change the brightness-to-color translation, simply touching the resulting image one or more times. At this point, if you like the image produced, you can save it in the local archive, pressing the Save Image button. Then, you can get a new image to process.

About

Brushstroke

Transform your photos and videos into stunning paintings with a single touch. Edit, personalize with a signature, and share your creations on social media. High-quality canvas prints of your artwork can also be ordered and delivered directly to your home.

Highlights
  • Photo to painting transformation
  • Video to painting transformation
  • Signature personalization
  • Social media sharing
  • Canvas print ordering
  • Multiple painting styles
Features
Read full description

Turn your photos into paintings with Brushstroke. Brushstroke transforms your album photos and snaps into beautiful paintings in one touch. Edit, sign, and share your work on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Want your artwork printed? We've teamed up with CanvasPop to provide the best quality canvas prints available. Pick a frame and size, and you’ll have your masterpiece delivered and hanging on your wall in no time. For something extra special, try transforming your videos into incredible moving paintings at up to 4K resolution with Video Paintings. Features: • Automatically transform your photos into one of many painting styles • Load photos from your Camera Roll and other Albums • Take snaps and watch them transform instantly • Experiment with different color palettes • Adjust your painting to get just the right look • Select from a variety of canvases and surfaces • Sign your painting to personalize it • Share your art on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook • Have your art printed and shipped right to your doorstep • Transform your videos into art with Video Paintings Subscribe or purchase Brushstroke to unlock all features. For more information, visit us at www.codeorgana.com, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram @codeorgana. Find out more about CanvasPop prints and their 100% "Love it" lifetime guarantee at www.canvaspop.com. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

Brushstroke4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Brushstroke at 80% against Photographic Effects's 0%. Brushstroke also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.8 vs 1.0). Photographic Effects's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 16). On ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Brushstroke is free to download; Photographic Effects costs $0.99 up front. Brushstroke sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Photographic Effects asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Brushstroke holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Brushstroke has 14K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Photographic Effects's written reviews are positive against 80% of Brushstroke's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Photographic Effects ships an update every 38 months, Brushstroke monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 1 level
Photographic Effects versus Brushstroke: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhotographic EffectsBrushstroke
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating1.0 (4 ratings)4.8 (14K ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews79.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings414K — better
Update frequencyEvery 38 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB127 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLuigi FontiCode Organa

Customer experience

Photographic Effects

All ratings4 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Brushstroke

All ratings14,016 ratings
Positive96.1%
Neutral2.3%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews656 reviews
Positive79.6%
Neutral4.7%
Negative15.7%

Bugs and requests

Photographic Effects

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Brushstroke

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when importing certain photos
  • Saved images disappear from camera roll
  • Slider controls not working as expected

Requested features

4 requests
  • More painting/filter styles
  • Ability to adjust brush size/strokes
  • Better photo organization/search
  • Improved printing quality/options

In-app purchases

None

Photographic Effects

No in-app purchases

11 purchases

Brushstroke

Subscriptions4
  • Brushstroke2 variants$4.997 Days
  • Brushstroke2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Brushstroke3 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Brushstroke3 Days trial2 variants$59.991 Year
One-time7
  • Illustration Pack$3.99
  • Video Paintings$3.99
  • Unlock Full Version$6.99
Show 4 more
  • Unlock Full Version$7.99
  • Unlock Full Version$13.99
  • Unlock Full Version$15.99
  • Brushstroke2 variants$79.99

Questions

Is Photographic Effects free?
Photographic Effects costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Brushstroke free?
Brushstroke is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Photographic Effects or Brushstroke?
Brushstroke is rated higher. Photographic Effects averages 1.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Brushstroke averages 4.8 from 14K ratings.
Do Photographic Effects or Brushstroke have ads?
Neither Photographic Effects nor Brushstroke shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Photographic Effects or Brushstroke?
Photographic Effects ships an update every 38 months, and Brushstroke monthly. Most recently, Photographic Effects was updated on November 1, 2026 and Brushstroke on November 2, 2026.

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